Wizard of Jatte by Rowan Erlking (ereader ebook .TXT) 📖

over. “What are you doing?”

Theobold flapped instantly, pushing the magician away from Theissen. “Get away from him!”

The same time the dog jumped out, baring his canines, which were a deal less fierce than his old snake fangs had been. Extending his wingspan to block the magician, the birdman shouted.

The woman screamed, covering her hands over her mouth. Her eyes followed Theobold as he pulled his wings back in under his robe, still blustering over the magician.

“You keep a demon!” the magician shouted out, turning his eyes on Theissen.

“I don’t keep anyone,” Theissen muttered back, rolling off the ground to his feet again, though he also finished his feather retrieval. He patted the dog on his head to calm him. “What I do is none of your business anyway.”

Retreating to the steps of the inn, the magician glared at Theissen. “Oh, is that so? Magic in Jattereen happens to be my business. Demons in Jattereen are most especially my business.”

Theissen merely dusted himself off.

Already the former molemen were rolling out onto the street with their covered carts. Theissen patted the tops of them as they went by to tighten the ropes holding canvass down so they were secure. The former birdmen followed, heaving out their loads of feathers. Watching them, the magician trailed after the procession with increasing stares at the traveling party. Behind his eyes, he was working out what exactly he was seeing. He pointed with a shaking finger at them.

“They…they…they’re demons. All of them!”

Rolling his eyes, Theissen glanced at Theobold before saying to the magician. “No. Idiot. They’re not. Former demons, perhaps. Human now. And you’d better treat them that way.”

“Treat them as human?” The magician’s voice rose to an even higher pitch. “Demons are monsters!”

Theobold’s feathers ruffled again. Had he been a real bird, he might have pecked the man’s eyes out.

“Calm down.” Theissen rested his hand on one of Theobold’s wings. He turned to face the magician. “You have no idea what a monster is. A monster is someone who terrorizes others.”

“That’s a demon!” the magician shouted, yet keeping his distance.

Theissen just shook his head. “No. A demon is merely the knots of the natural world a little tied up, whether from the fault of their own or from an ancestor.” Then he chuckled, “Or from a foolish magic user.”

He could see the hate swelling around the magician now. It billowed around him like a dark steamy cloud, sinking to the ground in a rippling ooze, rolling over the paving stones. The stink was way too familiar. This man was just like the magician in Lumen. In fact, this magician began to chant something, drawing in around him what looked and felt like a mounting pressure of air and heat. He would be making fire within a second.

With one gesture, Theissen muttered his own incantation, swiping what looked like a scratch around him and Theobold. “North, South, East, West, ward encircle and protect from hate! Shield!”

He snapped his fingers. Almost at once, he saw around him the hate that swelled from those that watched him swirl up and form a dome-shaped wall between them, woven from the threads no one else could see but him.

“Burn!” The magician screamed after him. The compressed air and heat compacted, bursting forth like a ball of fire from the magician’s hands.

The former demons ducked underneath the carts. But they weren’t the target anyway.

The woman innkeeper screamed and ran back inside her building. She stared out the doorway for protection.

Of course, the fire merely swelled around the dome, not singing even a ruffled feather on Theobold’s back. The birdman had instinctively extended his wings to cover the both of them, as he had not understood the spell that Theissen had just cast. Perhaps no one had.

“Impossible!” The magician shouted, watching the flames continue to circle around the heads of both Theissen and Theobold.

The birdman lowered his wings, staring up at the fire that could not touch them.

“Not impossible,” Theissen replied with increased exhaustion, though he glanced to the others to make sure they were fine. “It’s just obvious that you had not learned that spell. Pandoros Magician taught it to me in Liptan Town.”

“Pandoros?” The magician shouted back. He turned on the woman. “This man is not a wizard! He’s a magician!” He turned back on Theissen, still shouting. “How come you are not wearing magician’s robes?”

Making a sick face, Theissen reached up and untied the knots to the fire spell, dissipating the flames in a puff of smoke. “I’m not a magician. I’m a wizard.”

The magician stomped down the steps, not getting too close though. “Pandoros would not have taught a wizard—”

“You are mistaken,” Theissen retorted, smirking. He remembered the old man too well. “He and Undi both wanted to study a wizard for a long time. They even begged me to let them. I studied under them for three years while working in my trade as a carpenter.”

“You work as a carpenter?” The magician repeated as if he had not heard right. “A wizard carpenter?”

Theissen nodded with consternation. Already he noticed the looks the former demons were giving him. Most of them smothered expressions of I-told-you-so, though many of them were still staring at the magician whose face flushed and went white in intervals. In fact, Theissen also noticed a look of shock in the magician’s eyes. Stares of understanding flickered through them, peering at Theissen’s face and then taking in the scars on his arm and hands as if he knew they would be there.

“You’re the wizard from Lumen,” the magician muttered in a low horrified voice.

Straightening his back, Theissen lifted his chin. “Yeah. What of it?”

Already the magician drew back. His eyes widened as he retreated. Pointing at him, he breathed out, “I heard about you.”

Theobold retracted his entire wingspan now, tilting his head like a curious bird at Theissen. “You’re famous?”

“Shut it.” Theissen shoved him gently aside. “What did you hear?”

Shaking his head slowly, the magician did not take his eyes off of Theissen. “You aren’t an ordinary wizard. You’re dangerous.”

“Ordinary wizards are not dangerous?” a former moleman whispered to another.

“I thought all wizards were,” the other replied.

The magician drew his robes close to his body, retreating farther down the street. He narrowed his eyes at Theissen with fixed hatred. “The others need to know you’re here—encroacher.”

“Encroacher?” Theissen repeated, wiping away the protective spell from around Theobold and himself with a gesture. “What? Are you saying this city isn’t big enough for a handful of magicians and one wizard?”

All he got in response was a glare. The magician dramatically turned and stalked off.

“I think that means he’ll be back,” Ronen muttered.

“Well, we won’t,” Theissen said, shrugging. He turned away from the inn. “Off to the new house! Come on.”

Chapter Thirty-Six: I’ve Got to See This With My Own Eyes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When the caravan arrived on the street leading out to the Serjiev highway, most of the floor beams had arrived. The flooring itself came on another cart. The Millman had been more than true to his word. He went beyond. He also brought along a few men who offered to help them build. Obviously they saw a lucrative work opportunity.

“That is, of course if you don’t want to use magic to make your home?” the Millman said to Theissen with a smirk. He had already noticed that Theissen was inclined to do things the conventional way.

“No, I’m glad you brought them. They could teach my friends here a thing or two about building.” Theissen patted one beam on the cart, smiling over the wood with increased satisfaction. The feel of it under his fingers was nice. “However, I will be cheating when we lay the stone.”

“Cheating?” The Millman looked puzzled. He watched Theissen direct the former molemen over to the men delivering their wood, instructing them to help the beams off the ox cart.

“He thinks using magic is cheating.” Theobold nudged in, a smirk cracked across his face. He then flapped over to the pit, hopping in with a glide to look at all the stuff in the bottom of it. That wasn’t the first time he flew around either. He had flown in ahead of the caravan, tired of walking. The people on the street were still getting used to Theobold, as Theissen paid the birdman no mind.

But he wasn’t the only one they stared at. Maintaining a large distance from the caravan, the crowd could see these were not ordinary people. Having witnessed the curing of the kirrels and fanged dog with wings, they knew these were also cured demons.

“Goodness, Theissen. Look at all this stuff!” Theobold called up.

Theissen chuckled to himself as he walked to the edge. “Come on out of there. We need to lay the floor and set the stairs.”

The birdman looked up from the pit, lifting out a brass piece that was slightly crushed. “But look at this! That old wizard had a fortune in brass and gizmos in here.”

“Broken gizmos. I need time to sort though all that. Now come on out.” Theissen walked back to the roadside. He noticed Merchantwife stood a little farther away than she had the day before. Several of the cats had adopted her. The woman was washing on the curb, situated to watch it all. Her daughter’s eyes were wide, following Theobold as he flew out from the pit and overhead until he dropped on the road next to Theissen.

“I like it here.” Theobold grinned. He looked around the street, smiling especially at the eagle that had made permanent roost on the rooftop of the merchant’s house. “There is space to fly out here.”

Theissen also glanced about the neighborhood. It did have a nice feel to it. Yet in the air and among the crowd he could sense pockets of hate here and there, watching him. It was a peculiar smell, actually. A different flavor of hate, and one that had not been there before he came back with his traveling companions. Most of the area, however, smelled healthy fresh and flowed nicely. No one was truly terrified of the presence of former demons, just curious. He decided that perhaps living with a wizard in the neighborhood had done some good in that respect.

“I like it here too, but I still want to investigate that tower if I can.” Theissen turned, peering over the tops of the houses where the tower stuck out.

“The tower?” Theobold examined it also. “Are you sure you don’t want me to go ahead and—”

“Don’t you dare,” Theissen gave him a warning look. “The last thing I want is you shot by some frightened city guard. They have to get used to us first. Then maybe you can feel free to fly around.”

Theobold stared wanly at him. “Sometimes I really wish I hadn’t left the forest.”

“You were banished, moron,” Teppan said, walking past him.

Swatting him as Teppan walked by, Theobold’s wings fluffed out. “It was overridden! I’m your liaison, jerk.”

“Stop it!” Teppan snapped back, ducking away. “I’m a carpenter apprentice now! You deal with Dobbis!”

Theobold made a gagging noise, slumping his shoulders. “Seron’s nephew is such a wet blanket. Do I really have to?”

Ignoring the bickering birdmen, Theissen joined the molemen and guided the ones carrying the beams to the pit. He had to talk to